Predicting infant apgar scores

This study identified psychologic and sociologic phenomena that affect a woman during pregnancy which, when associated with physical factors, result in poor neonatal outcome for the infant, as measured by the Apgar score at five minutes after birth. The Utah Test Appraising Health (UTAH) was administered to 51 pregnant women during the second or third trimester of pregnancy. Data measuring maternal and infant outcomes were collected postdelivery. A significant correlation was found between maternal stress up to six months before administration of the UTAH questionnaire and the five-minute infant Apgar score (r = -.2787, p less than or equal to .05). The stress score was combined with past pregnancy complications, pregnancy symptoms during the first and third trimesters, and illness-proneness in a regression equation. The total multiple correlation coefficient was .8979, with stress X past pregnancy complications contributing most to the prediction equation. When stress and past pregnancy complications were controlled, the partial correlation value was -.8001. The data were consistent with the hypothesis that stress during pregnancy is an activator of physical illness processes in the mother, and, when combined with these variables, is related to neonatal outcome, as measured by the infant Apgar score at five minutes.